That’s the title of JK Huysman’s 1884 novel about the Decadent movement, usually translated as “Against the Grain” or “Against Nature”. It’s a delightful very funny (IMHO) read. But I thought of the phrase “against nature” when I heard of the student riots in France this week.
High school students rioting and setting fires because learning conditions aren’t to their liking?
That can’t be right, can it? Surely high school students are the same the whole world over, and education is the least of their concerns. They’re into dating, heavy petting , cars, rock’n’roll, and they welcome any excuse to get out of going to class, right? What is wrong with these French kids?
Do they wanna hark back to the heady days of the student protests of The Sixties? Those were university students not high schoolers, kids, and it think the protests were mostly about international issues like Vietnam.
(I was in college at the time and I thought it was funny back then: the college students’ attitude was :” We’re on STRIKE! We’re not gonna do our final term papers! THAT’LL show ‘em!” As if anybody cared. )
“Anyexcuse to get out of going to class”….yeah, I just answered my own question.
American kids might set off the fire alarm or call in a bomb scare.. French kids, the spirit of 1789 still running in their veins, storm and burn the Bastilles of the educational establishment.
These jeunes bouffons ( that’s young bozos) are of course just being used by the radical Left,of course. They started at the top, with people close to retirement protesting raising the pension age. Niw they’ve worked their way down to the lycees.
What’s next? It HAS to be the crèches (nursery schools). Hey if they’re old enough to walk, they can march!
Quelle époque de bétise.
